PM Weekly - Innovation is Not Just a Process
by Leonardo Zangrando, @lionzan
Sure you have to change your innovation process, but it’s not enough and not your first priority.
The process has to change from the old, tried and tested, waterfall, staged approach, to a new one reflecting how the most innovative companies do innovation today. Yes, the process has to change to give results better than the usual 20% or less success rate — sure, at least 80% of innovations currently fail the market.
Yes, we must embrace lean processes like Pretotyping to validate market appeal and actual use of an innovation way before we develop it. Because we want to make sure we will be building the right thing in the first place. Or discover ASAP that the great idea we had was in fact a ticket to hell. Because we want to be able to change the innovation concept as many times as needed to make it the right thing for the market.
Innovative startups have shown us the way. It is possible to validate market interest and actual use before we start developing the innovation for good. Actually, making sure it is the right thing and changing the concept accordingly to what we learn from the market is already part of the innovation development. The innovation’s actual embodiment in a working product / service / process is just the final act of the innovation’s development.
All clear then. We know how to do all this. We’re good, aren’t we?
Bad news is that this alone is not enough. I repeat it’s not enough, it won’t work. Do that, change the process, build learning organisations, use experimenting tools, and you’ll very likely fail. Because you, the CEO, the forward looking board, have another client you want to make sure will buy in the innovation system you have envisioned.
It’s your people.
Like an innovation product is worthless if customers don’t want it, an enterprise innovation system is worthless if the employees don’t want it.
The very first step is to make sure the process is the right fit for them. Like your customers, you want to make sure your employees will like the process and use it. How can you know in advance?
Just test it as you would do with any other innovation!
Run internal experiment with and about the process itself, to learn how to change it till you make sure it’s the right thing for your organisation.
Unlike with your customers, you have another lever though. You can train your employees — much easier than to train your customers — about the new innovation perspective. Th training itself is a way to validate how they will like it, how to change it and adapt it to fit the needs of your organisation.
The objective of the training is to develop a culture of lean innovation throughout the company to facilitate buy in from your people.
And while you’re at it, why not run hands-on training programs where you test (pretotype) how the new system would work in the new organisation you are going to create. What would work, what would not, how would your people like it, what would you need to change to make it the right it?
A typical program could be a one day workshop where you first explain participants the reasons and merits of a lean approach to innovation like Pretotyping. Then you have them understand how it works by running simple experiments on business cases. And finally you make them work hands-on on innovation ideas they have of their own. Thus they learn by doing and appreciate the value of such a new way of working. (We at PretotypeCo. developed and offer programs like this, just ask!) There are many other advantages to this approach we discovered in our experience at PretotypeCo. and I will devote an entire post to that.
Finally…
Your company culture and your people attitude are the foundations of a successful enterprise innovation program. Your people are your first customers. Learn from them while showing them the way, and implement the right it for them and your company!
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